September's new B2B season - planning for 2026

70% of my conversations in August with peers, partners, clients, and prospects revolved around 2026 planning.

This used to be the norm around that time of the year between 2012 and 2020, but far from usual since the pandemic - with lockdowns, WFH, recessions, wars, elections, and trade relationships, and active turbulence in both B2B and B2C.

In fact, August is traditionally slower, but more active than ever as seasonality is completely turned around.

On B2B planning cycles

As we work with enterprises across different countries in North America and Europe, and a handful of industries, fiscal years start at various points in time - usually at the start of Q1, Q2, or Q4 of the calendar year.

• Some of our retainers are planned for the rest of the calendar year

• Some projects are slated for Apr 1 for other accounts

• Certain launches are happening in September - before unlocking budgets for the Oct 1 fiscal year

No matter the internal budgets and annual contracts, ongoing initiatives and budgetary pockets are available across the board - for different demand generation, revenue operations, CRO initiatives, and other boosts in the process. As well as regressions, covering for staff changes or agencies dropping the ball.

The common denominator is the future outlook that executives undertake this summer.

And some grow through successful acquisitions - which is the topic of my latest podcast with Mark Woodbury, Managing Partner at Raincatcher:

Bottom line - 2026 is right around the corner.

For the most part, companies have stabilized in 2023 and 2024, and see a positive direction for their 2025 efforts.

This means that:

• The overall financial uncertainty is still around, but manageable

• VC funding and growth spurs have been aligned - companies relying on new rounds have calibrated, or repositioned so they can raise bridge rounds

• Layoffs aren’t over, but the biggest cuts are. The new norm is optimizing for efficiency and productivity, with individual cuts or smaller teams cleared out every few months if needed

• The AI augmentation hype is still going, but most people have a rough idea of what could be improved internally, what can’t, and where can teams take AI to the next level, optimizing internal processes or outbound initiatives

• Current positioning (pricing/subscriptions) has seen change, or is planned already, and will be executed in the next 6-12 months for different businesses

This doesn’t exclude larger news blasts, such as Oracle’s cut of 3,000 people in India, Semrush’s layoffs this week, departmental changes, or price bumps for different SaaS companies. Yet again, 2025 seems to be already sorted or pre-planned, and the focus is on 2026 goals.

GTM for new solutions takes 6-9 months to kick in

The reason 2026 is top of mind is the recent alignment of expectations between many executive teams and the new market realities.

In 2012, product development was slow and hard, competition was minimal, PLG was fairly trivial. A couple of strong affiliates or a small PPC budget can take you places.

Competitive markets have been growing year after year, resulting in increasingly aggressive PPC and SEM budgets during the 2018-2022 era.

With the bubble burst, there’s stronger alignment between reality and expectations, particularly in launching new initiatives and campaigns, with new positioning, markets, or personas.

A typical repositioning exercise, even if the premise is clear (initial market research/ICP interviews have been conducted, with pricing analysis mostly decided on), takes different shapes to get to market:

1. Standardized product positioning and pricing

2. Recalculated forecasts for growth (CAC costs, quota attainment, pipeline expectations, LTV, CAC payback, and many others)

3. Client-facing positioning - redesigns, landing pages, offer testing, CRO optimization

4. Omnichannel campaigns - PPC, SEM, community networks, affiliate, cold email/calling, ambassadors and influencers, podcasts and newsletters, AI SEO

5. Market establishment - G2/Capterra, Gartner and Forrester mentions, Reddit/Quora plugs, listicles, and other forms of picking up the new messaging

6. A renowned effort in recreating case studies, aligned to the new market/targeting

7. New user journeys for the new markets/audiences/pricing models

8. New demos/webinars, and taking at least a couple of months of trial and error with existing clients and low-level prospects

9. Events and messaging on-site

This also requires new data layers, dashboards, and KPI targets - all of which, combined together, accelerate the new positioning, supplemented with additional brand mentions and PR activities, founder-led content or LinkedIn thought leadership, keynotes and podcast appearances, and ask me anything sessions.

After the first 6-9 months of heavy execution are done, performance can reach a stable point - reaching an acceleration peak of predictability and planning, recommendations from AI SEO and listings, organically picking the brand/products in comparison and review sites, and other relevant items.

This is why August has been heavily tailored to 2026 needs. Initiatives we’ve been working on over the summer, and planned for Q4, are expected to start generating results after January, preparing for the pre-summer season and making a mark.

And new contracts starting in January are planning a return on investment starting in September.

If you haven’t adjusted your targets yet, it’s time to put the plan in motion and get your data pipelines, tech systems, and RevOps targets in place. This is our target as we sign several new accounts and reshape the 2026 targets together.

Mario

Joining Milan Savov on my journey as a serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor - watch the full interview here:

🗣️ The conversation on 2026 planning on LinkedIn - I opened up the same topic the other day, jump in and share your thoughts

📚️ Books I read this month

• The FP&A Handbook: Mastering Financial Planning & Analysis (25% in)

• “Revenue Architecture” by Jacco van der Kooij (50% in)

• Ray Dalio’s “How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle” (45% in)

• Hooked - on habits and cues and product alignment (50% in)

• “The Sweaty Startup” by Nick Hueber (10% in)

🐁 My deprecated mouse is going places - I spent a year waiting for my G602 (discontinued) to reappear on Amazon.

🔖 Automated bidding cuts CPC and boosts revenue. A case study on AI bid optimization reveals smarter PPC campaigns with less manual tuning and higher returns.

🔖 Refine your KPIs to align strategy. Use this practical framework to connect operational metrics with team-wide goals.

🔖 Grow Pinterest scale without losing ROAS. The Pinterest ads playbook shares tactics for managing costs while expanding performance and reach.

🔖 Choose the right CMP for 2025. See which consent platforms help firms stay compliant without adding operational complexity.

🔖 Visualize cross-channel behavior better. Step-by-step tips on customer insight mapping that leads to better decisions.

🔖 Predictive modeling tools built to scale. Explore the top tools supporting automation and performance as data demands grow.

🔖 Find the right soft skill tools. These platforms for workforce development align capabilities with business objectives.

🔖 Set your brand apart with better messaging. A positioning guide highlights audience clarity and differentiation tactics.

🔖 Shift from pageviews to stronger insights. These A/B testing metrics guide more valuable decisions and engagement boosts.

🔖 VR’s role in future mental health care. Clinical reviews show virtual reality helps treat trauma and anxiety at scale.

🔖 Consistent performance gives teams the edge. The Volatility Crisis guide outlines frameworks that reduce burnout and build execution habits.

📰 NVIDIA debuts Jetson Thor. The design delivers generative reasoning and real time AI in a compact module.

📰 FTC warns against EU digital rules. Agencies push platforms to resist Digital Services Act over sovereignty concerns.

📰 Markets await key economic reports. Inflation, jobs, and Fed rate odds converge over the next fortnight.

📰 LayerX secures $100M Series B. The AI first platform targets back office automation for Japanese enterprises.

📰 Alibaba unveils multi-agent framework. The open source setup combines GUI-Owl and Mobile-Agent-v3 for workflow automation with human like reasoning.

📰 Wolters Kluwer launches Capego platform. Firms streamline billing and compliance with Capego Practice Management.

📰 Geopolitics meets trade strategy. Xi’s remarks on U.S. tactics drive investors to weigh risks in multipolar markets.

📰 Fusion energy secures $7B in funding. Investors back dozens of startups racing toward commercial fusion reactors.

📰 LLM Scout tracks AI brand placement. LLM Scout reveals when and where brands appear in ChatGPT, Claude, and similar services.

📰 Rudeness costs U.S. companies billions. Workspace incivility wastes productivity, hitting businesses at $2.1 billion daily.

📰 BlackRock ups stake in Freedom Holding. The $89 million move signals institutional faith in emerging markets.

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Need My Help?

Keeping myself busy - here are the main projects I focus on:

🌐 Scaling enterprises on top of WordPress? DevriX provides martech retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo and we manage high-traffic platforms (hundreds of millions of monthly views), B2B SaaS apps, partnership management solutions, supporting $10M - $250M businesses with scalability, custom funnels, CRO, big data augmentation, AI-driven processes, HubSpot workflows, programmatic SEO - and everything a modern business requires in digital in 2025.

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📊 Into digital M&A? I work closely with Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interest. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides the tools to list your business and close the deal.

💼 Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink.